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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25871893">Two Doors Down (they're laughing and drinking and having a party)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/karalovesallthegirls/pseuds/karalovesallthegirls'>karalovesallthegirls</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Supergirl (TV 2015)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alcohol, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Explicit Language, F/F, Homophobia, Old wounds healing through newfound love and a quest for vengence, Polyamory, Revenge, misogynistic language</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 08:40:19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>16,135</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25871893</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/karalovesallthegirls/pseuds/karalovesallthegirls</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Andrea Rojas hasn't spoken to Lena Luthor in a decade, but that doesn't stop her from reaching out when she realizes she's being played. And when Lena asks for her help uncovering just how deep that betrayal goes, well - who is Andrea to say no?</p><p>or</p><p>Three women work together to bring down a bastard of a man and just so happen to fall in love along the way.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor/Andrea Rojas</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>91</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>554</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Two Doors Down (they're laughing and drinking and having a party)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>We watched the 2014 cinematic masterpiece The Other Woman a few months ago and I couldn't get it off of my mind. It's about three women who discover they're all being played by the same man so they work together to punish him for it. While I would not recommend it without a caution - a lot of the jokes did not age well. There is some transphobia and one particular transphobic bit that's especially gnarly - the core relationships between the women blew me away. They become so enthralled by each other even though they supposedly should hate each other. I couldn't watch these women enmesh their lives so deeply in pursuit of vengeance and not think 'now THAT's a love story.' I wanted to write that story.</p><p>It's also been difficult for me to focus on other projects due to us being in a global pandemic, so writing this was like a fun goofy break. I hope you enjoy it. Let me know what you think (unless your thoughts are 'I don't like poly fics, why couldn't it just be Supercorp?' because I'm not interested in those thoughts, thanks!)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She knew who he was the second he walked in. Long before his smarmy eyes landed on her from across the bar.</p><p>She’s known all there is to know about him for years, actually. The moment the engagement was announced she spent weeks googling and, during her weaker moments, hiring private investigators. She’s known exactly what kind of man he was from the moment she first heard his name, yet still she plays pretend when he approaches, smiles in a way that she’s probably meant to find charming, and says,<br/><br/>“Hey there. I’m Mike. What’s your name?”<br/><br/>She knows the look in his eyes, that same sleazy one she’s seen before so many times in bars like this with men just like him. She takes note of the thin tan on his ring finger left from the wedding band he’d obviously pulled off. She knows he’s still married to <em>her</em>. She smiles.<br/><br/>“Andrea,” she says. “Gonna buy me a drink?”</p><p>He’s a charmer, she’ll give him that. He knows how to talk to women and if Andrea weren’t acutely aware of exactly who he is married to, she maybe would have gone for it. He’s cute enough. Fine for a one-night experience.<br/><br/>But she could never forget just who Mike Matthews is, no matter how charming he seemed to be. So instead, she strategizes. She smiles pretty and touches his arm, she laughs at his jokes and pretends she’s interested in his business stories. He’s a wealthy businessman, after all. He’s <em>so </em>impressive. He has a room in the hotel just next door, too, with an overstocked mini bar perfect for a night cap. He’d love to show it to her.</p><p>She doesn’t know why she agrees. Part of it is a desire to see how far he’ll actually go, if he’ll really cheat on his wife. Part of it is her trying desperately to keep him closer because being near him is the closest she’s been to <em>her </em>in seven years. Mostly, she just doesn’t know what else she can do.<br/><br/>So she goes to his hotel room. She lets him put his hands on her hips. Lets him touch her ass. She holds him close against her long enough to slide her hands across his body and into his jacket, searching and searching until she finds it. Then she’s pulling away, pretend-flushed and nervous saying she’s got to freshen up first, and before he can so much as speak she’s locked away in the bathroom with her heart pounding and his cell phone in her hand.</p><p>This is stupid. This is<em> so stupid</em>.  She needs to leave. Right now. Just walk out and pretend this never happened.<br/><br/>Instead, she presses the home button.<br/><br/>“Shit,” she says, realizing its locked.<br/><br/>“You okay in there?” Mike calls from near the door, and she double checks the lock before turning the faucet on full blast.<br/><br/>“Just a minute!”</p><p>She types in a few random number combos, all failing. She puts in his wife’s birthday – wrong. His own birthday (she knows a lot about him, okay?) – also wrong. Exasperated, she types 1-2-3-4. The phone clicks open. She nearly cries out in relief.<br/><br/>She pulls up his contacts and scrolls quickly until she gets to her name. He has her in his phone by her maiden name still, with her corporation listed beside it. No picture, no emojis, no anything. It’s a name she knows so well, one she’s researched and thought of endlessly for the better part of a decade, but seeing it there – seeing her there, so close, just a click away – it almost stops her. Almost.<br/><br/>She’s dialing before she can change her mind.<br/><br/>It rings three times and for one blessed moment she thinks she’ll just be able to leave a voice mail, but of course she answers.<br/><br/>“I thought you said boys’ night meant no phone calls,” she says, and Andrea freezes. She can’t talk. The air has been knocked clear out of her lungs at the sound of her voice. It’s like she’s been thrown back ten years in the best and worst ways.<br/><br/>“Hello?” that beautiful voice says after a silent beat, “did you butt dial me?”<br/><br/>“Your husband’s cheating on you,” Andrea says, and her voice cracks midway through. She has to clear her throat just to say it. The voice gasps, loud and familiar in her ear.<br/><br/>“Who is this?” she asks harshly.</p><p>Andrea laughs. That’s a loaded question if she’s ever heard one.</p><p>“I’m the girl he just picked up at a bar. Probably not the first one, either,” she’s talking fast, desperation seeping in that she can’t quite hold back. This is the first time they’ve spoken in years. “I just wanted you to know what kind of man you’re married to. You deserve better.”<br/><br/>Nothing but silence. Andrea wishes so desperately she could see her face. If she could see her, she could read her. She always could.<br/><br/>“Who is this?” The voice asks again.<br/><br/>“Why does it matter?!” Andrea says back far too loudly, then drops her voice. “He’s <em>cheating</em> on you, Lena. Is that not enough information?”</p><p>Lena’s quiet again for far too long, so long Andrea wonders if she’s hung up on her.<br/><br/>“Andrea?” Lena finally asks, draining every ounce of blood and courage out of her all at once. “Andrea Rojas, is that you?”</p><p>Andrea hangs up.<br/><br/></p><hr/><p><br/>She does a marvelous job of compartmentalizing.</p><p>She locks that whole night – the phone shattering when she threw it down on the bathroom tile, her running out of the bathroom to find Mike naked and afraid, her hearing Lena say her name after so many years – up in the deep recesses of her mind and moves happily on with her life. So what if that aching pit she’s carried deep in her chest for a decade has cracked itself open again? There’s business to handle. She can deal with all of that emotional garbage after she secures the largest company acquisition her father’s company – now her company – has ever had.</p><p>They’re so close she can practically taste it. The other company has fought her every step of the way, but Andrea is relentless in her pursuit. She’s always made a point of going after what she wants with a ferocious fervor. <em>Almost everything,</em> she thinks, and pictures Lena.<br/><br/>And then, as if summoned by her mind, her assistant buzzes in.<br/><br/>“Miss Rojas?” she says, her voice tinny over the speaker, “There’s a Lena Matthews here to see you? She says its urgent.”</p><p>A bucket of psychological distress drops heavy over Andrea’s head. Lena is here. She’s so stunned she can’t speak, which her assistant interprets as disapproval.<br/><br/>“Right, sorry, I’ll send her away. Sorry to disturb you!”<br/><br/>Andrea nearly knocks her pen holder off the desk in her haste to click the speaker on.<br/><br/>“No! No, that’s,” she clears her throat, her hands shaking, “please. Send her in.”<br/><br/>She tries her best to settle while she waits. She even tries that meditative breathing technique Russell taught her. It doesn’t help the nerves, but the shaking stops at least.  Besides, no amount of mindfulness could prepare her for the intense wave of longing that hits when Lena finally steps in to her office and the air sucks from her lungs like a vacuum seal. The world around them fades into a dark swirling haze as all of her focus, her entire being, seems to home-in on Lena.</p><p>
  <em>Lena.</em>
</p><p>Lena is here, in her office, standing right in front of her like a fantasy brought to life. Andrea has spent so many years working and fighting and repressing to reach the place she’s at, to haphazardly fill the hole in her life left behind when she lost Lena, and yet the second she sees her again all that progress drains away like loose dirt in a flood. It’s been nine years since they were last in the same room and Lena is just as breathtakingly beautiful today as she was then. Her mere presence still hits her just as hard.</p><p>“Lena,” Andrea breathes out like her name is holy, “it’s so nice to see you.”</p><p>The sentiment is clearly not shared as Lena flings her purse down hard to the ground in anger.</p><p>“Andrea Rojas are you<em> fucking</em> <em>my husband</em>?” she yells, so loud Andrea’s certain they hear her two floors down.</p><p>It takes some wrangling to settle Lena down enough to figure out just what’s going on. Andrea pointedly ignores the dozen or so Skype messages from her assistant sent after she told her that no, Andrea did not need security called on the volatile woman screaming accusations in her office. She just needed the door closed and some privacy.</p><p>“Lena, please know my relations with your husband only go so far as that phone call.”<br/><br/>Lena flinches back like she’d slapped her. As if hearing their near-hookup acknowledged out loud causes her physical pain. Even after so many years, Andrea can see all the ways Lena tries to hide her emotions. How she closes her eyes tight, breathes deep through her nose, schools her expression into a neutral disinterest. Stoic on the outside and roiling internally. It hurts Andrea to see it.<br/><br/>“Right,” Lena says through gritted teeth. “Well. Then, I – I apologize for bursting in like this. Goodbye.”<br/><br/>And then she turns and practically sprints out of Andrea’s office.</p><p>Her higher thinking tells her to let Lena go. That she brings a big can of emotional worms that should not be opened, not now after so many years spent recovering. But Andrea’s been listening to that higher thought for so many years now, and that’s what’s gotten her into this position in the first place. That’s what kept her from chasing the last time Lena walked away from her devastated.<br/><br/>She chooses her heart instead.<br/><br/>“Lena!” She calls, chasing after her.</p><p>Her assistant gives her a panicked look that she waves off and only just manages to catch Lena’s elevator before the door can close. Lena’s still got her finger pressed to the CLOSE button and she looks just about as miserable as can be. Andrea steps on and lets the door close behind her.<br/><br/>Lena refuses to look at her. Jaw clenched, eyebrows drawn tight, she stares ahead like she hopes to will herself free from this confrontation. Andrea does her best to look friendly and unassuming but judging by Lena’s face it’s not working. Understandable – that’s never been Andrea’s strong suit. She goes for direct instead.</p><p>“Lena, please,” she holds a hand out to Lena but pauses as she flinches away, ‘You wouldn’t have come here if this wasn’t something important. What’s going on?”</p><p> A spectrum of emotions flashes across Lena’s face too quickly for Andrea to catch, and she can practically see the cogs in Lena’s mind running overtime to decide what to say. It’s just thrilling to be so close to her for so long.<br/><br/>“He’s having an affair,” Lena whispers out through gritted teeth so low Andrea almost misses it. “He’s going to leave.”<br/><br/>There are tears in her eyes and a tremble in her lower lip and all Andrea can think is<em> I’m going to skin that man alive</em>. She says,<br/><br/>“Why don’t you come back to my office and we can talk?”</p><p>Shocking both of them, Lena does.<br/><br/></p><hr/><p><br/>“I don’t know who she is,” she mumbles almost to herself, burying her face into her hands. They’re sat in Andrea’s office now with glasses of bourbon and a Do Not Disturb notice outside the door. Lena looks so small, defeated. It’s been a decade since Andrea has seen her look this small. “You’re the only wild card, all the others…” she trails off.<br/><br/>With that it’s like a switch is turned in Andrea’s brain and all she sees is red.  </p><p>“Wait, he’s <em>still</em> cheating on you? Even after that night?” Andrea says, blindingly furious. “That bastard. That absolute bastard. I’ll kill him.”</p><p>Big words for someone who hasn’t spoken to Lena in half a decade, but Lena seems unphased. Too lost in her own thoughts about her cheating bastard of a husband. Instead she shakes her head and sits up straight, as if she were just going to walk right back out of the office like nothing happened.</p><p>“It’s not… he’s allowed to do... <em>that</em>...” she whispers it like even talking about sex is bad. “Just not-,” she runs a hand over her face, frustrated, “we have an arrangement.”</p><p>It shouldn’t, but it knocks the wind right out of her. Hits her so hard she falls back into her seat with a thump. Lena just puts her face in her hands.<br/><br/>“You have an arrangement,” Andrea parrots back like an idiot. Lena just groans.<br/><br/>“Yes, yes, I’m a pathetic prude who lets her husband sleep around. I <em>know</em>,” she throws back the rest of her drink in a single long gulp. “It’s always been like this. He knows I can’t satisfy his needs, but it’s never mattered before. Something’s changed.”<br/><br/>Andrea feels like her heart might burst free from her chest with how fast it races.<br/><br/>“Can’t satisfy his needs,” she says slowly, tongue heavy in her mouth, “because you’re-”<br/><br/>“Coming here was a mistake,” Lena cuts her off, voice panicked as she jumps up so fast she nearly sends her chair flying. “I never should have come. This was such a stupid idea.”<br/><br/>Andrea practically leaps across the desk to grab Lena’s hand, genuine terror flashing through her at the thought of Lena walking out of that door. It’s only been a few minutes but already she’s desperate to keep her as close as she can for as long as she can. Lena freezes up as soon as their hands touch, stares at where they meet with confused, clouded eyes. Just the feeling of her skin under her fingers has Andrea burning inside.<br/><br/>“Lena,” she begs, and Lena finally meets her eyes. “<em>Please</em>. Let me help you. Please.”</p><p>Somehow, blessedly, that stops her. She doesn’t leave. Instead, she grabs the bottle of bourbon and pours herself another glass. Andrea can hardly contain the joy she feels practically bursting from herself. After a moment of staring and calming down, she refocuses on Lena’s words.<br/><br/>“Something changed – what changed?” she asks.</p><p>It takes another minute for Lena to drink the entire glass down and refill it, but by the time she’s sipping on her third she finally manages to speak.<br/><br/>“There have been, God, so many girls over the years. It’s never been a problem for either of us.”</p><p>Lena rubs her eyes with a weary heaviness, sighing again, before adding, “We have our arrangement. He knows about my… <em>predilections,”</em> she says it like a curse, and Andrea can feel her heartbeat jump, “He knows I don’t want his touch, and he knows I don’t care how he satisfies his needs so long as he always comes home to me. We’re <em>partners.”</em></p><p>Her voice cracks on that last word and she looks away suddenly, eyes misty. It’s been so many years since she’s seen Lena and just as long since she’s seen her cry. It takes everything in her power not to go to her, to wrap her in her arms and promise to kill Mike and whoever else made her feel this small.<br/><br/>She made her feel this small, all those years ago. She tries to stay focused on the present.</p><p>“If he’s allowed to fuck around why are you in my office so upset?”</p><p>She looks up at Andrea with pure misery in her eyes.</p><p>“I don’t think it’s just sex. I think he’s in love.”</p><p>“What makes you say that?”<br/><br/>“He’s been acting strange for a while now. We don’t talk anymore, and when we do, he’s so secretive. He’s never been secretive like this before. Last week I realized he’s moved nearly eighty thousand dollars from our savings into some other account that I know nothing about,” she takes a hiccupping breath, “I think he’s going to leave me.”</p><p>“Would that be so bad? What with your,” she clears her throat, “predilections?”</p><p>Lena stiffens up and Andrea immediately regrets saying that. What vulnerability had peaked out of her expression is hidden instantly behind an impassive blank stare.</p><p>“Life is about more than that, Andrea. You more than anyone should know that,” she snaps, and this time it’s Andrea’s turn to flinch.</p><p>“Besides, after Lex, and, and everything,” she waves at Andrea and immediately she wants to sink into the floor and die, “Mike was the only person who supported me. He helped me take over every one of my family’s subsidiaries. He helped me save myself. He’s a bit of a numbskull, but he’s the only person I thought I could trust in the world, and now... who knows,” she wipes at her nose again, adding, “And we own everything equally. L-Corp, his family’s business. All the subsidiaries – we share equal partnership. If he leaves, it could destroy everything.”</p><p>Her eyes say <em>it could destroy me </em>where her words do not, and Andrea feels any hesitation in her fall away. She can’t look into Lena’s eyes and tell her no, not now. Not again.</p><p>“I don’t know what to do. I don’t even know who she is,” Lena says drearily.<br/><br/>“Well, we have no choice, really,” Andrea says all matter-of-fact. “We have to hunt this girl down. I know a PI who can find her. Russell Rogers. You might remember he-”</p><p>“I remember.”<br/><br/>Her voice is firm, cold.<br/>Right. Of course.<br/><br/>As far as Lena’s concerned, Russell is the man Andrea left her for.<br/><br/></p><hr/><p><br/>Russell laughs when she calls him.</p><p>Laughs for so long she nearly hangs up on him to try someone else. Not that there’s any private investigator in the world she’d trust more than him. Even with this. Especially with this.<br/><br/>“So, wait, wait, just to make sure I’m understanding - you want me to find the secret mistress of Mike Matthews? And <em>Lena </em>is asking you to do it?”</p><p>“Yes, Russell,” she drawls, already feeling the headache creeping in. “I can see the irony. Now will you do it <em>or not</em>?”<br/><br/>Her last words dip into a tearful waver as, for just a moment, the sorrow in her words peek through.</p><p>His laughter tapers off at the sound of it. His words are too gentle as he says,</p><p>“Oh, love. What have you gotten yourself into?”<br/><br/></p><hr/><p><br/>Andrea doesn’t remember the day Lena got married.</p><p>She was halfway through a week-long bender then, one she’d been toeing the line of since she’d first found out about the engagement. She doesn’t remember the wedding day, but she remembers a few days after when Russell jimmied the lock on her front door and tossed her half-conscious body into an icy shower. That she remembers with painful clarity.</p><p>“I’m g-gonna k-kill you,” she’d said through chattering teeth, and her former lover turned best friend just laughed.<br/><br/>“I’d like to see you try. Come on, now, let’s pull it together.”<br/><br/>He’d scooped her back up after that, wrapped her in her fuzziest towel, and set her on the couch to rest while he cleared the empty bottles from her living room floor.<br/><br/>“You can’t keep acting like this, Andrea. You’ll die, and you’re not allowed to die before me. We’ve talked about this.”<br/><br/>He tried so hard to be light, but nothing could shake the deep dread that weighed every part of her down.<br/><br/>“She’s married,” she had said like a death sentence. That’s how it felt. “She married him, she actually did it.”</p><p>He squatted in front of her, cupping her face in his big hands.</p><p>“Yes, she did. The ceremony was lovely, by the way. Always love a spring wedding.”<br/><br/>She sobbed at his words with a little hiccupped cry and glared at him with such intense hatred her eye twitched, but Russell just wrapped his arms around her. She didn’t fight it, just let him pull her still soaked and shivering body in close.</p><p>“The person you’ve loved your entire life married someone else. I’m sorry,” his voice was soft and sincere in that way he always is with her. “I know it hurts, love, I know it does, but you can’t keep on like this.”</p><p>“Does he love her?” she’d asked, not sure if she even wanted an answer. <em>“Does she love him?”<br/><br/></em>She can’t remember anything after that.<br/><br/></p><hr/><p><br/>They all meet at L-Corp two weeks later. Andrea half-expected Lena to cancel the appointment, but when she and Russell arrive that morning together, they’re swiftly welcomed in to the office with a kind, “Mrs. Matthews will see you now.”<br/><br/>Lena looks good, of course. She always looks good, but especially so here in her office, her territory. This is where she truly shines. It’s also safe territory for Lena, which she needs when dealing with so much emotional vulnerability. Andrea can hardly breathe.</p><p>Introducing the long-lost love of her life to the man who she essentially left her for is, to say the least, deeply unpleasant.</p><p>Lena shines even with the dark bags Andrea can see underneath her makeup. Not a surprise, of course. Andrea spent the last week staring at her own ceiling every night thinking about how today might go, yet Lena is a consummate professional. Back rigid straight, smile just shy of friendly as she holds out her hand to shake. To his credit, Russell takes the tension with stride.</p><p>“It is an honor to meet you, Miss Luthor- sorry, Matthews,” he overcorrects, genuinely apologetic. “I’ve heard so much about you.”<br/><br/>“Only good things I hope,” Lena says, tight-lipped. Russell’s face melts into kind sincerity.<br/><br/>“The best.”</p><p>It feels like all the air has vanished from the room just watching the two of them interact, so Andrea claps her hands together and loudly says,<br/><br/>“Alright! Shall we begin?”<br/><br/>The two let go with a quick, awkward laugh.<br/><br/>“Right, no need to draw it out,” Russell says, handing them both a packet. “I found her.”<br/><br/>A look passes over Lena’s face so quickly she doubts Russell saw it, but Andrea did.<br/><br/>“So then, there is a her?” Lena asks, and even under all her careful stoic professionalism Andrea can see the pain. She distracts herself by flipping through the packet brimming with information. Classic Russell. Always so detailed.<br/><br/>“Her name is Kara Danvers,” he says. “She’s a personal trainer in National City. It looks like they’ve been involved for a little over a year.”<br/><br/>“National City? That’s pretty far for a hookup.” Andrea states unhelpfully. Lena just laughs in misery.<br/><br/>“He’s made regular trips there for ages. Said they were looking at opening a new headquarters there. I should have known…”<br/><br/>Andrea reaches out and places a hand on top of Lena’s before she can stop herself. Lena yanks her hand free instantly like one would after an accidental brush with a hot burner. She sits up straighter.<br/><br/>“Please, Mr. Rogers,” Lena’s voice is clipped, emotionally empty, “Continue.”<br/><br/>After a quick glance to be sure Andrea is okay, he does.<br/><br/></p><hr/><p><br/>Kara Danvers has lived in National City for six years. She’s been everything from a nanny to a secretary to now a personal trainer. She really seems to like this job, based on her Instagram.<br/><br/>“She is certainly fit,” Lena mumbles as they scroll through her feed, and Andrea can’t help but notice the red tint to her ears. Andrea hasn’t seen Lena’s ears go red like that since they were teenagers, back when they’d steal drinks from her father’s liquor cabinet and Andrea would whisper to her about what she’d read in her mother’s dirty pulp novels.<br/><br/>Andrea <em>hates </em>this Kara Danvers.<br/><br/>“They met at Kara’s gym,” Russell continues. “It’s right next to one of your corporation’s offices. He was visiting for work and took one of her classes.”</p><p>“How quaint,” Lena mumbles, still scrolling through her Instagram. Andrea wishes she’d stop looking at it. Not just so her ears would stop being so red from this harlot’s half-naked gym selfies but just in case of-</p><p>Lena gasps and drops her phone.</p><p>Front and center is a photo from six months ago of Kara Danvers and Mike kissing with the caption ‘love this goofball’ and a dozen hearts. The photo tags to a MikeyM16, a private Instagram Lena clearly doesn’t know about.She stares at it until her screen goes dark. Russell clears his throat.<br/><br/>“Like I was saying, it’s a pretty serious relationship.”<br/><br/>Andrea thinks about calling it a day. Sees the way Lena is hunched, eyes shrouded staring at that locked phone screen. She considers reaching out another hand, but she knows that won’t be a comfort. Instead she waits.<br/><br/>After a long moment, Lena speaks.<br/><br/>“What else?”<br/><br/></p><hr/><p><br/>They live together. Or rather, Mike bought Kara Danvers a condo that he shares with her one week out of the month as he travels between lives. He even paid off her student loans.<br/><br/>“So generous,” Andrea drawls, flipping through the packet. “Sounds more like a sugar baby than a girlfriend.”</p><p>“It’s more than that,” Lena and Russell say simultaneously. Russell looks briefly amused while Lena-</p><p>Lena just looks sad.<br/><br/>“I can always tell when he’s seen her,” she says. “He’s happier. Lighter. He loves her.”<br/><br/>“He’s been making some financial moves. Set up a joint bank account that she can access,” Russell adds, watching Lena with soft, concerned eyes. “My guess is he’s getting things ready to start a life there permanently. And now-”</p><p>“Now he’s going to leave me for her,” Lena finishes.<br/><br/>Despite their constant assurance, Andrea still can’t quite fathom the idea that Mike would just abandon the life he’s built with Lena.</p><p>“I’m sorry, but I don’t get it. No one in their right mind would leave someone like you.”<br/><br/>“He wouldn’t be the first.”</p><p>It's heavy, and even with her face stoic she can see the old pain. It’s a shadow of the devastation she’d had on her face all those years ago, when they were young and so afraid.</p><p>“Like I said,” Andrea’s voice is small, subdued, “no one in their right mind.”<br/><br/>She can feel the intensity of Lena’s sudden gaze upon her, but she refuses to look.</p><p>After a few loaded moments, Russell clears his throat.<br/><br/>“I have all her information. What would you like me to do?”<br/><br/>Lena stares at her own hands for a few beats, lost in her own musings, before gazing up with a determined look.</p><p>“Nothing. You’ve done everything I could ask of you. Thank you.”</p><p>Russell shoots Andrea a concerned look, which she shares. Something is going on in Lena’s mind, she can see it all over her face. Something concerning.<br/><br/>“Lena,” Andrea asks. “What now?”</p><p>Finally, she looks her in the eye.</p><p>“Now I go meet her.”<br/><br/></p><hr/><p><br/>Her plan is crazy, of course. She wants to fly to National City and confront the bitch. There is no world in which this ends well.<br/><br/>“So, I suspect you’re going too then, right?” Russell asks later that night as the two get drinks. Andrea scoffs.<br/><br/>“You really think I’m gonna drop everything to fly across the country and chase down some asshole’s mistress?”<br/><br/>“I think you’d do anything Lena asked you to do.”<br/><br/>Andrea drains her glass in a single long gulp to avoid having to look him the eye.<br/><br/>“Shut up.”<br/><br/><br/>They fly out on one of Lena’s private jets two days later.<br/><br/></p><hr/><p><br/>Their plan is as follows:<br/><br/>They stay in one of Lena’s hotels for a night and then go to one of Kara Danvers’ morning yoga classes.<br/><br/>That is the extent of their plan.</p><p>Andrea is a little scared to ask for specifics on what it is Lena wants to do when she finally meets her husband’s mistress and she wonders if she should call her family’s lawyer just in case. (She’s fairly certain Lena didn’t bring a gun, but you can never be sure)</p><p>For her part, Lena seems surprisingly calm in the face of this life-altering confrontation. As calm as she would be in any corporate meeting, Lena keeps her head high and demeanor cool as they pad out barefoot on to the studio’s hardwood floor. No fear or tremor as they lay out their yoga mats and listen to the other students quietly talk while they wait for their beloved instructor. She is the picture of control.</p><p>That vanishes, of course, the second Kara Danvers arrives.<br/><br/>“Sorry I’m late, guys!” The sporty slut says, tossing her stuff down with a huff. “Traffic was bananas! Okay, so today we-”<br/><br/>Whatever else she says is lost on Andrea as all of her focus zeros in on Lena. Lena, who is standing there with the widest eyes Andrea has ever seen and a mouth hung open even wider. She looks like she’s staring at a goddess come to life, or a devil more likely. Andrea has never seen her look at anyone like that before.<br/><br/>“So we’ll start with a quick warmup and then get right into it, okay?” Kara Danvers’ voice cuts through the haze and suddenly everyone else in the room has dropped down on to their mats to start. Hesitantly, she and Lena fumble down as well.<br/><br/>Now Andrea is no stranger to yoga. In college she dated a girl who taught hot yoga classes at the rec center every weekend, which meant every weekend was spent in miserable positions so that afterwards the two could find much more enjoyable ones to fall into. Lena, however, does not have that same background.</p><p>They had transitioned through child’s poses and planks and downward facing dogs, and by the twenty-minute mark she can see the sweaty trembling of Lena’s arms as she struggles to hold herself up. She sees the way she nearly collapses entirely when the she-devil herself crouches beside her.<br/><br/>“Hey there,” Andrea can hear her say, and it takes all her focus to hold her pose and not leap across the mat to strangle her. “Would it be okay if I touched you?”<br/><br/>Andrea wants to scream <em>no, stay away from her</em>, but she hears Lena’s shaky voice say <em>yes </em>instead<em>.</em></p><p>With slow, careful hands Kara Danvers touches her, pressing along her spine with one hand while the other guides her hips.</p><p>“More of a bend here,” she whispers, “and less there.”<br/><br/>Andrea can hear the breathy noise Lena makes and pretends it’s from exhaustion.<br/><br/>“Like this?” Lena asks, and Kara hums and says,<br/><br/>“Yep! That’s it. You’re perfect.”</p><p>Andrea stares down at her mat for the rest of the class.<br/><br/></p><hr/><p><br/>She didn’t know what the plan was, but she didn’t think it involved taking a forty-five-minute class from Mike’s whore and then loitering awkwardly in the lobby for another fifteen. Whatever is happening in Lena’s head she’s keeping to herself, so Andrea is left to watch her pace back and forth and hope they can escape this horrible morning unscathed.<br/><br/>That is, of course, an impossibility.<br/><br/>Kara Danvers has finally emerged from whatever hellhole she was hiding in and, worse still, she seems to be heading their way. Lena freezes and stares, much to Andrea’s horror.<br/><br/>“She’s coming over. Lena. Lena, she’s coming towards us, Lena-” but Lena remained frozen and by then it’s too late.</p><p>“Hey there,” the mistress devil herself says. “Thank you so much for joining my class this morning! You two are new, right? I’m Kara.”</p><p>She smiles and holds out her hand to shake. Lena just gapes a little like a fish. Like her brain turned off the second Kara looked her way.<br/><br/>“Um, yes!” Andrea says, because oh <em>my god </em>Lena really wasn’t going to say a word, “we’ve been trying to find a new gym for ages and yours has such great reviews! Isn’t that right?”<br/><br/>Lena still says nothing, so Andrea wraps an arm around her and gives her the tiniest shake that, thankfully, breaks her from her fog.<br/><br/>“Great reviews, yes,” Lena adds unhelpfully.<br/><br/>Kara - damn her! - smiles sweetly at them and nearly hops in place in her enthusiasm.<br/><br/>“Well we’re happy to have you here! And we’re running a special this month for new clients if you’re interested. Right now, couples’ memberships come with a free month of personal training.”<br/><br/>“Oh, we’re not -” Lena starts, but Andrea cuts her off with a quick,<br/><br/>“Could you be our trainer?”<br/><br/>Kara seems surprised but pleased.<br/><br/>“Absolutely, if that’s what you wanted!”<br/><br/>She’s looking nervously at Lena, which is understandable considering Lena keeps acting like a fucking weirdo. Just staring and sputtering like she’s never seen a live human woman before. Andrea yet again has to come to her rescue.<br/><br/>“We do. Sign us up!”<br/><br/></p><hr/><p><br/>They only get a few moments alone together in Kara’s office while she gets the paperwork ready, but Lena is quick to take advantage of it by nearly ripping Andrea’s arm off in her panic.<br/><br/>“What the hell are you thinking?” Lena hisses at her. “You want to hire her to be our<em>personal trainer</em>?”</p><p>At least she isn’t frozen anymore.</p><p>“You wanted to meet her. What better way is there than this? Besides, this way you can gawk at her muscles up close.”<br/><br/>“I – I was <em>not</em> gawking-”<br/><br/>“Sorry about that, ladies!” Kara calls as she skips back in. “Printer keeps jamming. I got all the paperwork here.”</p><p>“Not a problem,” Andrea says with her best business smile before quickly filling out the contract.</p><p>“Great! Now all we need is your name here and you’ll be good to go,” Kara says to Lena, and shit. <em>Shit.</em><br/><br/>She can’t write Lena Matthews. </p><p>Kara will know and whatever they were trying to do here will be for nothing. </p><p>She can’t write Lena Luthor, either. That name is even more damning. </p><p>Now Lena’s stuttering again, although this time from more than just Kara’s physique because shit – they don’t have a plan. They haven’t had a plan for any of this, yet here they are and here Andrea is again having to save them.</p><p>“Lena Rojas,” she says with a confidence she doesn’t feel, taking Lena’s hand. She tries to ignore the way her skin tingles where they touch. “We’re newlyweds. She still forgets which name to put.”<br/><br/>She laughs and Kara laughs and Lena keeps staring like her spirit has escaped her body through her mouth.<br/><br/>“Oh! Congratulations,” Kara says sweetly, and Lena squeezes Andrea’s hand hard enough to bruise. “Well with that all taken care of, how does next Tuesday sound for your first session?”<br/><br/>Andrea smiles even as she loses feeling in her fingers thanks to Lena’s death grip and says,</p><p>“It’s a date.”<br/><br/></p><hr/><p><br/>Lena calls her at three in the morning in a panic. She’s so loud Andrea can just faintly hear her through their shared hotel wall.</p><p>“We can’t do this, I’ve changed my mind. We have to cancel.”<br/><br/>Andrea anticipated this. Lena is the bravest person in so many ways but confronting a challenge like this must feel near impossible. Despite the days they’ve spent working long-distance in this National City hotel just waiting for that appointment date, this moment was inevitable.<br/><br/>“I put down a $50 deposit, Lena,” Andrea says. “We can’t back out now.”<br/><br/>Andrea stretches languidly, the phone nestled against her cheek. In the dark, she can almost pretend Lena’s voice is coming from beside her and not over a phone.<br/><br/>“Ha ha, funny. I’ll give you $5000 to forget about all this nonsense.”<br/><br/>“My starting price has a few more zeroes on the end of that, I’m afraid. Besides, we both know there’s no running away from this.”<br/><br/>Lena laughs at that, a sad husky laugh that sends tingles down Andrea’s fingertips at the sound of it.<br/><br/>“I wish we could run away,” Lena says so low she almost doesn’t catch it, but she does hear it and it’s like all at once the floor falls out beneath her. Like she’s twisting tumbling through a dream space where anything is possible, where she and Lena could escape together, could be together. For just a moment, the impossible is real.<br/><br/>“Me too,” Andrea whispers back.<br/><br/></p><hr/><p><br/>Andrea has spent many years considering what physical activities she would like to perform with Lena and not one of those activities included burpees.<br/><br/>“I’m gonna die,” she pants as she hits the ground again for another plank.<br/><br/>“You’re not gonna die,” Kara helpfully chirps, making Andrea want to kill her. “Two more, come on, Andrea, you got this! Hey, good work, Lena!”<br/><br/>Lena practically preens at the praise as she hops up, shaking but determined to finish the set. Andrea has been over here dying for the last thirty minutes yet Lena has only seemed to improve, practically glowing under Kara’s tutelage.</p><p>It’s all a little too much to process. Andrea eventually has to slink off to the water fountain just to catch her breath but stops when she hears Lena’s laugh echoing across the gym. The gym slut has her arm propped up beside Lena’s head, not-so-subtly flexing while smiling down at her like she’s the best damn thing she’s ever seen. And Lena? Lena is smiling back just as hard, saying something Andrea can’t quite make out yet sends the stupid trainer into a riotous laugh that only heightens the joy already radiating off of Lena.<br/><br/>It makes her want to barf just to see it.<br/><br/>“Hey babe,” Andrea calls, catching both of their attention. “Will you help me with this real fast?” She holds up her water bottle stupidly. They both stare at her in confusion but thankfully Lena still comes over to “help.” Andrea pointedly ignores the perplexed look the trainer is sending her way.<br/><br/>“You need help filling a water bottle?” Lena asks, amusement dripping through her still exhilarated smile. She’s glowing and Andrea both loathes and loves to see it.<br/><br/>“You sure seem to be enjoying this,” Andrea says in response, and she hates herself for the bitterness that slips in to her tone. Especially when she sees the way Lena shrinks back and her defenses go up.<br/><br/>“I like working out,” Lena says. “And she’s a good teacher.”<br/><br/>“I’m sure she’s good at using her body for a lot of things.” Lena gives her a look, so she quickly adds,<br/><br/>“All I’m saying is don’t forget who she is to you.”</p><p>This seems to get through to her. Her smile grows dimmer, sadder<em>. Dammit.</em><br/><br/>“I know,” she whispers, and Andrea wishes she’d never said anything. Then, with perfect timing, the devil calls out to them,</p><p>“Hey guys! How about we do some lunges next?”<br/><br/>“I’m not going to make it out of this alive, am I?” Andrea groans, earning the tiniest glimpse of a smile from Lena. That alone makes the entire hellish experience worth it.<br/><br/></p><hr/><p><br/>Andrea barely makes it to her hotel room without collapsing, let alone into her shower. Every limb is jellified, wiggling and unstable like a newborn deer taking its first trembling steps. She fucking hates working out. Almost as much as she hates Kara Danvers.</p><p>It takes way too long to shower given her inability to lift her arms above her head, but she eventually manages to soap up and rinse off enough to drag her weary bones to bed. She doesn’t have the emotional fortitude to towel dry so she just haphazardly slings the penthouse provided robe over her shoulders while dabbing at her hair.</p><p>She steps out to find Lena in her suite sitting on her couch, staring.<br/><br/>Lena gapes at her in much the same way she gaped at Kara earlier, mouth wide and floundering, and it’s that familiarity that has Andrea slow to cover herself at all. Instead she crosses her arms and leans casually against the wall like her entire body isn’t in screaming pain and cocks her head to the side. The robe front parts in such a way as to be just a hint shy of indecent, and her skin practically burns under the weight of Lena’s stare.<br/><br/>“Can I help you?” she asks, her voice dropping in that way she knows people love. Lena’s ears burn bright in the offset lighting. Andrea tightens her fists to hide the shake in her hands.<br/><br/>“I- um, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you…” Lena struggles, glancing away with a pointed throat-clear. “Would you like to get ready for bed so we can talk?”<br/><br/>It has been so long since she’s been allowed to fluster Lena like this, to have her burning in front of her with nerves and desire. There’s no way in hell Andrea’s giving that up.<br/><br/>“I sleep in the nude, but if you insist-” and she moves to tug the robe belt free. Like she knew she would, Lena nearly leaps out of her skin in her quest to stop her with a loud <em>NO!</em></p><p>“No no, that’s quite alright, what you’re wearing is fine! It’s,” another throat clear, “it’s fine.”<br/><br/>Andrea tries to hide her smile as she languidly sprawls beside her, legs crossed at the ankle and her head held up by her arm resting on the couch back. Her position does little to hide how little is hidden by her robe. Lena refuses to look at her.</p><p>Even after all these years she can read Lena like a well-memorized poem. She knows what desire looks like in Lena’s eyes. It’s thrilling. Intoxicating. Dangerous.</p><p>“Tell me what you want from me,” she says, voice slow and low, “and you can have it.”<br/><br/>It has the desired effect. Her eyelashes flicker, heavy-lidded and dazed, and Andrea can’t help but watch the slow brush of her tongue along her lip as she considers what to do. Whatever it is, Andrea is ready.</p><p>“I don’t know what to do about any of this,” Lena whispers, so low Andrea has to lean a bit to hear her. The movement draws Lena’s eyes down only to jerk back up again. Her entire face is red now, never mind her ears.</p><p>“Anything you want,” Andrea whispers back. Lena swallows, then looks away.<br/><br/>“I mean with Kara. And Mike.”<br/><br/>All at once disappointment fills her at the mere mention of Kara. She pulls back and sighs.<br/><br/>“That’s up to you. We could just tell her.”</p><p>“No! No, we can’t,” Lena is so insistent, like she’s afraid of how Kara will react. “Listen, if you need to leave, I understand. I’m honestly shocked you’ve come this far.”<br/><br/>She wants to say <em>Losing you was the worst thing that ever happened to me and I would sell my soul to make it right.</em></p><p><br/>She wants to say<em> I would walk into Hell with my head held high if you asked it of me. </em><br/><br/>Instead, she says,<br/><br/>“You jump I jump, right?”</p><p>The skeptical look Lena gives her at that tells her those words aren’t entirely believed. She presses on.<br/><br/>“Tell me what you need. Do you want to go home?”<br/><br/>“No. Not yet, not while I still don’t know what’s happening. This is the woman Mike loves. I have to know.”<br/><br/>“Know why he loves her?”<br/><br/>“No, just… her. I want to know everything about<em> her</em>.”<br/><br/>Andrea couldn’t imagine a worse thing she could have said.<br/><br/></p><p>“Okay,” she says, resigned, and pulls her robe shut fully. “Well then let’s find out everything there is to know.”<br/><br/></p><hr/><p><br/>They go back to the gym the next day. Andrea can hardly feel her legs let alone work them out, but Lena is determined to start their investigation immediately and there’s no better place than here. The schedule online also indicated today is Kara’s off day, so they figure this is a good time to sneak.</p><p>They split up and start asking around about Kara, acting like they are just trying to find out how good of a trainer she is, but of course everyone fucking loves her. They have nothing but glowing endorsements for them, and by the end of it all Andrea can feel a headache starting to beat ever-so vigorously at the back of her skull.<br/><br/>She’d interviewed just about every person in the gym, narrowing it down with little to show for it until one fairly disinterested bodybuilder said this:</p><p>“I did one of her workshops once and it about killed me. She and her boyfriend tore us apart.”<br/><br/>Her breathing stutters, but she plays it cool.<br/><br/>“You met her boyfriend?”<br/><br/>“Yeah, Mike. He helps her out in classes sometimes. Seems nice. Doesn’t work out much. Kinda got that snotty rich kid prep school vibe, you know?”<br/><br/>“I’m familiar,” she says with a tight smile.<br/><br/>“Yeah. But he seems like a fine dude – totally in love with her, and that’s what matters, huh?”<br/><br/>She doesn’t dignify that with a response.<br/><br/></p><hr/><p><br/>They reconvene in the back hallway. All of their responses were about the same: everyone loves Kara and she only occasionally brings along her Ivy League boyfriend.<br/><br/>“They’re not huge fans of Mike,” Andrea says, amused. Lena laughs.<br/><br/>“Well, who is?”<br/><br/>Andrea glances to the side and lights up at what she sees.</p><p>“Hey, check it out. Her office.” She twists the knob. “And it’s unlocked. Come on.”<br/><br/>“Andrea. Wait, Andrea!”</p><p>She does not.</p><p>As far as offices go, the she-devil’s is certainly one of them. It’s not much bigger than a supply closet and has a smell to match it. It’s the same as it was when they signed their paperwork with one small addition.<br/><br/>A small vase with a few flowers neatly arranged and a note that says, “Counting the days till I hold you again. – Mike”</p><p>It knocks some of the wind from Lena’s sail, she can tell just looking at her. Like she’s shrunken in the face of what they’ve known all along, growing smaller with every passing breath. For a moment, she forgot just why they were there. Andrea never forgot.</p><p>“Let’s look around,” she says, trying to pull Lena from the funk she can feel her sinking into. “See if there’s anything- hold on, what is this?”</p><p>She pulls free from the haphazard stack of documents something printed on thick legal paper, neat and formal. As someone who grew up in boardrooms and meetings, she can recognize instantly what she’s looking at.<br/><br/>“It’s an NDA,” she mumbles, flipping through the pages. She can see each page initialed M.L. repeatedly until the last with the signature Mike Luthor. Next to it is a post-it note saying ‘just sign here! :)’<br/><br/>“That’s not right. I took his name, not the other way around.”</p><p>“Okay, but even then, why does he want her to sign a nondisclosure?”</p><p>Whatever answer Lena might come up with is lost at the sound of voices down the hall quickly approaching.<br/><br/>Andrea reacts instantly.</p><p>“Kiss me,” Andrea says.</p><p>“What?”<br/><br/>“Kiss me,” she pulls Lena forward by her athleisure jacket’s lapels, “sneaking off to fool around is a lot better than us breaking in to spy on her, so unless you want the cops called I’d suggest you-“ she’s cut off by Lena finally just kissing her.<br/><br/>She needs to play it cool. She knows that – it’s a pretend kiss to avoid getting arrested, after all – but the problem with playing it cool is that kissing Lena has been a focal desire for Andrea since she was fifteen years old. There has never been a long stretch of her life where she hasn’t thought about what it would be like, how Lena would taste, what noises she’d make. The only times she’s ever cum with partners has been when she thought of Lena, for fucks sake.<br/><br/>So yeah, <em>playing it cool</em> is kind of a hard thing here. It’s hard to do anything cool when she’s too busy sighing and moaning and licking into Lena’s mouth like some telenovela starlet and it’s so good, <em>it’s so good</em>, fuck, and what’s worse is Lena is giving as much as she gets. Lena is pressing into her until she’s practically shoved up on to Kara’s desk, Lena’s got her hands tugging in Andrea’s hair and her tongue in her mouth.<br/><br/>It’s so good, in fact, that Andrea doesn’t even notice the approaching person leave without coming in. She’s too caught up trying to figure out how to get Lena’s shirt off to realize, but Lena isn’t. Lena pulls back with a heavy sigh and says, “I think they left,” only for Andrea to immediately pull her back into another kiss.</p><p>“Who cares?” Andrea breathes against her, words rushing out thoughtlessly, “maybe they’ll come back.”<br/><br/>“Andrea,” Lena whispers as she pulls away, clears her throat, “they’re gone for real.”<br/><br/>Finally, her senses return. She lets Lena go. Says, with a slight shake in her voice,<br/><br/>“Right. Good.”<br/><br/>She focuses all her energy on keeping her hands steady as she takes pictures of each page of the NDA. Neither of them speaks until she’s done, after which they both slink away.<br/><br/></p><hr/><p><br/>Andrea’s father had a heart attack when she was sixteen years old.</p><p>She doesn’t remember much about that day, but she does remember the soft smile her family’s driver gave her as he helped her from the car. How he held on to her hand for a moment with his own and said, “stay strong, Miss Rojas. Chin up.” She doesn’t remember his name.</p><p>She remembers how, even as he sat hooked up to machines in the hospital’s VIP wing, her father had a phone and a stack of paperwork surrounding him. Even at the brink of death there was business to handle and moves to make.</p><p>“Papa, please. You need to rest.”<br/><br/>“I’ll rest when I’m dead,” he responded without missing a beat, shuffling through his stack of legal documents. “There is so much work to be done. If my company is worthless, my life is worthless.”<br/><br/>“You need rest,” she tried again, taking his hand for just a moment before he pulls it free with a huff. “You’re going to hurt yourself.”</p><p>“Do you know why I work so hard, <em>mi hija?</em> For you. I work myself to death for you, for this company. <em>Your </em>company. When I die, it all goes to you.”<br/><br/>She thinks of her brother, ten years older with a world of experience. A brother she has not seen in months, not since he came out to their family and was unequivocally cut-off.<br/><br/>“Miguel-”<br/><br/>“That boy is no son of mine,” he snarls fast, nearly spits in disgust. “Galivanting around in his sin, acting like what he’s doing isn’t wrong. A disappointment to the family.”</p><p>The monitor beats rapidly at that, too fast considering the alarm that goes off and the nurses who run in. They shove her out of the way at that, inject something into his IV and tell him he needs to calm down.</p><p>“Everything I have in this life is for you, <em>mi cielito</em>,” he yells at her as she is being ushered away. “I know you will not let me down.”</p><p>For a long time – too much of her life – Andrea works with all her might to prove him right.<br/><br/></p><hr/><p><br/>Mike calls Lena every few days to check in. He thinks she’s still in Metropolis as he’s been traveling nonstop for the last four weeks and hasn’t been home to see her. She assures him she’s fine, everything’s fine, yes, she misses him, no he doesn’t need to hurry home. She laughs at his charming jokes and stories. Andrea just sits there, jaw clenched tight eyes locked ahead.<br/><br/>“I love you too,” Lena says in a quiet voice.<br/><br/>Andrea’s chest hurts for hours after.<br/><br/></p><hr/><p><br/>Their next session with Kara is two days later.<br/><br/>“Can’t get enough of me, huh?” Kara teases as they approach, setting Lena off into a giggly stutter that makes Andrea want to die. “Nah, I’m kidding. It makes me so happy to see how committed you two are!”<br/><br/>“Yep, that’s us. Real fitness junkies,” Andrea deadpans.</p><p>For some stupid reason that makes Kara laugh much harder than it should have, and she’s looking at Andrea with something a little too close to affection and this is really all a little much for this early in the morning.<br/><br/>“I can definitely see that,” Kara says with far too much joy in her tone. “Well, what do you say we do a little warmup?”<br/><br/>Turns out a “little warmup” involves so many squats Andrea’s butt genuinely feels like it’s going to fall off.’</p><p>“This is cruel and unusual punishment,” she gasps out, earning another fucking laugh from Kara. She’s just the funniest thing to her it seems, and a part of her wants to snap every time she laughs. (Another part of her kind of wants to make her laugh again.)</p><p>“Why don’t we take a break?” Kara asks. Instantly Lena and Andrea collapse to the ground, desperately gasping in air. After this is all over, Andrea swears she will never even think about going into a gym again.<br/><br/>They get a few blessed minutes of exhausted silence before the devil speaks.</p><p>“So, I heard a little rumor you two were asking questions about me,” Kara says, hands on her hips and amusement in her eyes. “Just wanted to say I’m an open book. Any question you have feel free to ask.”</p><p>Andrea can practically smell the panic radiating off of Lena, can see it in the way she trembles and stares in blank horror. As always, it’s on Andrea to act.<br/><br/>“Are you dating anyone?” she asks. Some sort of horrified noise erupts from Lena at her question, but she stares challengingly at Kara. For her part, Kara just looks amused.<br/><br/>“I am,” she says. “I have a boyfriend. But you already knew that, right? They told me they mentioned him.”<br/><br/>“What’s he like?” she asks, ignoring Kara’s call-out. “How did you meet him?”<br/><br/>There’s a knowing glint to Kara’s eyes that Andrea doesn’t love, like she’s seeing more in her questions than Andrea would like.<br/><br/>“Kinda thought you’d wanna know how I was as a trainer, not as a girlfriend.”<br/><br/>“They’re basically the same thing with men.”<br/><br/>Kara laughs again. Andrea is just quite the comedian today.<br/><br/>“I like you guys,” Kara says with a kind smile, not answering.  <br/><br/>“Have lunch with us,” Lena says suddenly, voice high and unexpected. They both turn to her in surprise. She falters slightly under their eyes but stays resolute. “If you aren’t too busy, of course.”</p><p>Kara’s face lights up so bright Andrea has to look away from its shine.<br/><br/></p><hr/><p><br/>They have lunch with Kara at a tiny vegan place across the street from the gym.<br/><br/>(“I remember you said you were vegan,” Kara supplies, always the helper. “So, I thought you might like this place!”)</p><p>Andrea spends the entire meal glaring at her while Lena just eats her up. It’s like two puppy dogs meeting at a park – they are enthralled so completely with each other Andrea can practically see their leashes intertwine. Every moment is pure torture, especially the ones where Kara tries to engage her.<br/><br/>“So Andrea,” she says, like she’s fucking allowed to address her. “You work at a big company, right? I think that’s what Lena said.”<br/><br/>“Yep,” she says, voice tight and clipped. “Been in it my whole life.”<br/><br/>“I can’t imagine. It takes a special kind of someone to do that forever. I think if I was stuck behind my desk all day I’d die.” She smiles at Lena then, who is watching her like she’s putting the sun in the sky herself. “Well, I say that, but me and my boyfriend are about to start a business together, so.”<br/><br/>She laughs and takes another bite of her sandwich. No one else laughs.<br/><br/>“Oh?” Lena says, voice cracking. “What sort of business is that?”<br/><br/>Kara nearly spits in her enthusiasm to explain.<br/><br/>“It’s a gym concept I’ve been planning it for years! Sorry, didn’t mean to yell. I’m just so pumped about it.” She pulls her phone out to show them something and Lena just watches on with unbridled affection, which is almost as annoying to see as what Kara shows them next.<br/><br/>“I call it the Inflate-a-gym,” she says proudly, like an idiot. “It’s basically an adult bouncy house of fitness! Everything you’d need – strength training, punching bags, cardio equipment – it’s all there, and inflatable.”</p><p>Their thoughts must be painfully clear on her face because she’s quick to shove her phone in front of them. She’s got dozens of pictures, all showcasing cartoonishly designed inflatable bouncing pads, obstacle courses, even those inflated gloves like they used to sell on infomercials years ago. The entire thing is garish.</p><p> “So, everything is… inflatable,” Lena says slowly with a heavy dose of fake enthusiasm. “That’s nice.”</p><p>“It looks like a gym for clowns,” Andrea adds helpfully, earning a kick under the table from Lena and a laugh from Kara.<br/><br/>“I know it seems kind of out there, but it really is a cool thing. It’s like the funnest part of being a kid while also being a great workout. I’ve had the idea since I was young, but everyone always told me it was stupid. No one’s ever supported my idea before Mike.” She smiles at the table, small and content. “He’s helping me make it real.”</p><p>It’s the stupidest fucking thing Andrea has ever heard in her life.</p><p>“He sounds like a nice guy,” Lena says like her words are broken glass in her throat.<br/><br/></p><hr/><p><br/>They talk again in Andrea’s room that night. They’re both frustrated.</p><p>“What’s the plan here, Lena?”</p><p>“It’s still a work in progress.”</p><p>“My secretary calls me every hour asking when I’m coming back to the office and I don’t know what to tell her.”<br/><br/>“If you want to leave feel free.”<br/><br/><em>There’s no way in hell that’s happening.<br/></em><br/>“I just want to know what we’re working towards.”</p><p>“I want to get to know her. Is that so wrong?”</p><p>Their workouts are the highlight of Lena’s day, she can tell. She lights up when Kara starts talking and sometimes they’ll spend most of the half hour just chatting forgetting about the routine entirely. They are bewitched by each other and Andrea hates to see it.</p><p>“I just don’t understand why you want to get to know her.” She does understand. <em>She does she does she hates it. </em>“She’s the enemy here, remember?”<br/><br/>“Oh please. She’s as much a victim as we are. As I am. We’re not enemies!”</p><p>Tears burn at the back of Andrea’s eyes and she has to blink them away.</p><p>“Then what are we?” she asks.</p><p>She doesn’t get an answer.<br/><br/></p><hr/><p><br/>Andrea remembers the last time Lena looked at her with love in her eyes. How could she not? It was two days after they kissed for the first time. The day of her father’s first heart attack.</p><p>It was the worst day of her life.</p><p>“Oh my God, Andrea,” she’d called as soon as she spotted her. Lena had been camped outside Andrea’s dorm room for who knows how long waiting. “How is your father?”<br/><br/>Of course Lena knew about his heart attack, of course she was concerned. She’d always loved Andrea so fiercely.<br/><br/>“He’s fine.”</p><p>Lena grabs at her arms, tries to pull their hands together. Everywhere she touches burns.</p><p>“What’s wrong? Something’s wrong, I can see it.” Andrea yanked free of her grip, turning away.</p><p>“I don’t think we should see each other anymore,” she said, and it was like someone else was speaking through her. Everything is burning, she feels smoke in her lungs.<br/><br/>“What are you talking about?” Lena’s voice was so small compared to the roar in her ears. Her words were sharp and cruel.<br/><br/>“I don’t think we should be friends anymore. Or anything else. I mean, really Lena, what are we even doing?”</p><p>“We’re surviving until we can be free,” she said, and her eyes were so sad and confused. “It’ll be like we talked about. We can graduate and go to college together-”<br/><br/>“And what then? Do you think we can just, what, run off and get married? Have our happy ever after? Please. This isn’t a fairy tale. That doesn’t happen for people like us. We can’t,” her voice drops, hiccups for a moment, and she can’t bear to look Lena in the eye. “We can’t go on acting like we’re not doing something wrong. Like it isn’t a sin.”</p><p>Lena stumbles away from her as if it were a physical blow. As if she had struck her clean across the face. Andrea can’t even look at her. She pictures her father gasping for breath on the hospital bed.<br/><br/>“I have a boyfriend now, anyway,” she says, and gestures to a photo of her and Russell on her wall. They’d known each other since they were in diapers, her best friend before Lena. Her father had always liked Russell. Russell had always liked her. He’ll do. “I don’t think he’d like me being alone with a lesbian. You should leave.”<br/><br/>She didn’t look up to watch as she leaves, taking their years of friendship and what’s left of Andrea’s heart with her.<br/><br/>The next time she spoke to Lena was when she called her from her husband’s hotel room to tell her of his own sins.<br/><br/></p><hr/><p><br/>She calls Russell.<br/><br/>“Hey, love,” he greets. “How’s your post-Lena life going?”<br/><br/>“Not so post, actually,” she responds, preemptively cringing for his reaction. He doesn’t disappoint.</p><p>“Andrea!” he practically screams into the phone. “Please don’t tell me you’re still in National City?”<br/><br/>“She hasn’t decided what she wants to do about the whore yet and so I’m waiting. It’s not like I can just abandon her here.”<br/><br/>He just hums in response, infuriating her.<br/><br/>“What is it? I can hear your judgment through the phone.”<br/><br/>“I just wonder what is making her take so long,” he says before mimicking, <em>“she’s so fit.”</em></p><p>Andrea hates being reminded of that particular moment.</p><p>“It’s not like that,” she snaps.<br/><br/>“Isn’t it?”<br/><br/>“Oh please. This <em>beef-head</em> isn’t even her type.”<br/><br/>“Why is that? Because she’s not like you?”<br/><br/>She hangs up.</p><p>Ten minutes later she gets a text:<br/><em>I just worry about you</em></p><p>She doesn’t reply.<br/><br/></p><hr/><p><br/>They are still in National City. It’s been days and days. They keep inviting Kara to hang out after workouts. At this point Andrea wishes they could just skip straight to the awkward meal rather than enduring the physical hardship first, but no. They always do the stupid workout with her.<br/><br/>Almost every time Kara says yes.</p><p>“Please, come out with us,” Lena asks like always. “Just for a smoothie, we can be quick.”</p><p>Lena is holding on to Kara’s forearm like her life depends on it, and Kara seems just as enraptured.<br/><br/>“Why not?” she says. Andrea fucking hates it here.<br/><br/></p><hr/><p><br/>They go to the smoothie bar built into the gym, Kara and Lena chattering away about whatever nonsense they talk about while Andrea plots an early exit. At this point even the smoothie shop workers know their orders by heart. It’s ridiculous.</p><p>“Smart, not to wear a ring to the gym,” Kara says, glancing at their hands.<br/><br/>“I don’t wear rings,” Lena says, thoughtless. Kara just raises an eyebrow, so Andrea fills in fast.<br/><br/>“We’re not really traditional in our marriage,” she emphasizes to remind Lena of exactly what sort of ring Kara is talking about. “We’re pretty modern.”<br/><br/>“Ah,” Kara says, and for some reason she’s got the strangest expression.</p><p>Lena gets up to go to the bathroom then, which leaves Andrea alone with an increasingly awkward Kara. She’s never seen Kara like this, actually, and she’s seen a lot of her these past few weeks. Something weird is going on. Suddenly, she’s more interested.<br/><br/>“You okay?” she asks. Kara tugs nervously at her cup, looks around, finally says,</p><p>“You know, me and my boyfriend… we’re uh, <em>modern</em>, too.”</p><p>She can later blame it on the physical exhaustion of their workout, but for some fucking reason Andrea doesn’t quite understand. It must be evident in her expression as Kara rushes to speak again.</p><p>“We’re both poly,” she explains, almost like she’s embarrassed. “Non-monogamy works out really well for us since he travels most of the month anyway. We’re, uh, modern.”<br/><br/>The entire conversation finally catches up to her and Andrea just about falls out of her chair, which is perfectly timed as Lena arrives back to the table clearly noting the tension.</p><p>“What are you guys talking about?” Lena asks.<br/><br/>“Kara was just telling me all about her polyamory,” Andrea says drily, amused as things finally get interesting.</p><p>“Oh,” Lena says, before it seems to hit her. “<em>Oh</em>. Like… multiple boyfriends?”<br/><br/>“Not just boyfriends.”</p><p>Andrea doesn’t like the way she’s looking at Lena when she says it.<br/><br/>“And does your boyfriend know about your partners?” Andrea snips in an accusing tone.</p><p>“Of course. I’m all about open communication and consent. That’s the only way it works.”</p><p>“And does your boyfriend have other partners?” Lena asks quietly after clearing her throat.<br/><br/>“Sometimes. He’s… well,” she shifts awkwardly, looks down. “He’s technically still married.”<br/><br/>Andrea feels like a shark smelling fresh blood in the water. Finally, the devil is revealed.</p><p>“Uh huh. So what about his wife?” Andrea snaps, furious, “Where’s her fucking consent?”</p><p>Lena sits back abruptly at that, her delighted grin she’d worn since first seeing Kara slipping away. It makes her stomach hurt to see that, hurts in a different way than the pain of seeing her so happy from someone else. Everything with Lena always hurts.</p><p>“They’re at the tail end of a messy divorce,” Kara says fast, looking around. Their loud conversation has started to catch attention. “Which sounds like total BS and it usually is, honestly, but he showed me the papers. They’re already filed and everything.”<br/><br/>Andrea looks at Lena in alarm, and Lena looks just as stunned.<br/><br/>“They are?” Lena asks, and her voice cracks.<br/><br/></p><hr/><p><br/>“Lena-”</p><p>“She’s lying. I can’t believe it, but she’s lying.”</p><p>“You can’t believe the divorce papers were filed or that Kara might lie to you about it?”<br/><br/>“Both! Neither! I don’t know, I just don’t understand, I don’t -” she’s hyperventilating, pacing the gym bathroom they had run off to the second Lena couldn’t take it anymore. Andrea grabs her shoulders, squeezing them and taking a long deep breath.<br/><br/>“Breathe with me,” she says, and tries to guide Lena like Russell always does when Andrea gets into a fit. “You’re okay.”<br/><br/>“I’m not okay. Nothing about this is okay,” Lena sobs out, and then she’s wrapping Andrea up in the tightest hug she can.<br/><br/>It’s been so damn long since she’s held her like this. Since she’s felt her breath against her throat, her hair between her fingers as she cups her head close. Since she felt her sobs soaking through her shirt.<br/><br/>“I’m so alone. Everyone leaves and I’m always alone,” she whispers against Andrea, who just holds her even tighter.<br/><br/>“No you’re not. Not anymore.”<br/><br/>Lena just shakes against her, quiet and sniffling, and shakes her head like she doesn’t believe her.<br/><br/>Kara is standing in the hallway outside of the bathroom nervously ringing her hands. The look of pure, sincere misery in her eyes almost makes Andrea feel bad for her – almost. She mostly feels a dark pleasure at the sight.</p><p>“I’m really really sorry,” she immediately starts, reaching towards Lena only to pull her hands back like she’s not allowed to touch. “I’m so sorry that I made you guys uncomfortable. I know it’s not everybody’s cup of tea and I really didn’t mean to ramble so much. I hope I didn’t offend you or upset you by all that-”<br/><br/>“No, Kara, it’s not that,” Lena says, and then puts her fucking hand on Kara’s arm like she’s comforting her, like<em> she </em>upset <em>her</em>. “I just worry about you.”<br/><br/>They’re both holding each other’s arms comfortingly and all of Andrea’s pleasure drains away in an instant.</p><p>“That’s so nice! Thank you, I appreciate that. Really. And my sister would be the first to tell you how bad I am at picking partners, but Mike is different. He really is. I can feel it. It’ll be okay.”<br/><br/>And there’s something so painful in her earnestness that it even has Andrea looking away.<br/><br/>“I hope you’re right,” Lena says like it hurts to say.<br/><br/></p><hr/><p><br/>“I’m gonna kill him,” Lena fumes as soon as they get back to the hotel. Finally, some good fucking news.<br/><br/>“Yes! Finally! That’s what I’ve been saying this whole time! He sucks!”<br/><br/>“He does. He does.” She rings her hands, anger rolling off of her. “Did you see her? She loves him so much and he’s- he’s lying to her. He’s leading her on.”<br/><br/>“Yes, it’s terribly tragic that your husband’s secret girlfriend is suffering,” she drawls, earning a glare. “I’m worried about you, Lena. Not her. She’s the enemy, remember?”<br/><br/>“Is she? Because it sounds to me like he’s lying to her just as much. We aren’t in the middle of a divorce, we’re nowhere near that. He’s just telling her that so she’ll stay.”<br/><br/></p><hr/><p><br/>“He’s not just telling her that, I’m afraid,” Russell informs them over their video call. Every word seems painful to say. “The divorce was filed at fault thirty days ago. He filed it for spousal impotence.”<br/><br/>Lena’s eyes flutter, the briefest expression of emotion in her otherwise stoic mask, and she says,<br/><br/>“Why am I only just hearing this? Shouldn’t I know I’m being divorced?”</p><p>“You have 60 days to serve the papers for a divorce, so my guess is he’s getting all his ducks in a row before he springs it on you.”</p><p>“So, we know he is going to serve you with divorce papers in the next month. We know he wants Kara to sign an NDA. What’s his angle?”<br/><br/>Lena gives her a look so determined it gives her chills and says,<br/><br/>“I don’t know, but we’re going to find out.”<br/><br/></p><hr/><p><br/>At this point, they’re at the stupid fucking gym every day of the week.</p><p>Thankfully Andrea has been able to drop the pretense of exercising, instead sitting stationary on the stationary bike scrolling through her phone while Lena and Kara fawn over each other. They basically have her training schedule memorized so they know when to come by for a break. Whatever they’re talking about has Lena looking excited and determined, and she practically drags Kara over to her to announce it.<br/><br/>“Kara’s coming over for dinner tonight,” she says, pride in her voice.<br/><br/>“Is she now?”<br/><br/>“Looks like it!” Kara says. “I didn’t realize you guys lived in my building. You’ve been two doors down from me this whole time and I never even realized.” Andrea does her best not to roll her eyes.<br/><br/>“Oh wow, what a coincidence,” Andrea drawls with a glance at Lena, who is pointedly not making eye contact.</p><p>Their little meeting of the minds is disrupted then by someone calling out to Kara, who departs from them after a quick reassurance that she would see them at seven.<br/><br/></p><p>“Babe, you are such a fucking stalker,” Andrea murmurs, trying at least to keep attention off of them. “I can’t believe you bought a condo in her building.”<br/><br/>Lena laughs at that, sharp and fast and joyous.</p><p>“I bought the whole building, actually,” Lena replies, and her grin is so damn sweet it has Andrea’s heart tip-tapping inside her.<br/><br/></p><hr/><p><br/>It’s fully furnished, which is a relief. Andrea is not in the mood to furniture shop for their fake home. It had been funny at first, Lena buying a fake condo for their weird secret mission. Andrea doesn’t mind playing pretend every so often.<br/><br/>When she looked around and saw a space with comfortable blankets, books, her hoodie strewn purposefully haphazard across the couch back, well. It stopped being as funny. That weighty, sinking feeling in her chest only tripled when she saw the small picture display on the fireplace.</p><p>A selfie of them together that they took earlier in the week, nicely framed. Beside it a much smaller photo, one with creases and tears from the years of handling, that shows them as they were before. Teenagers wrapped in each other’s arms, Lena grinning giddily to the camera while Andrea grins at her, her face pressed into Lena’s cheek. Andrea doesn’t remember when the photo was taken, she doesn’t even have any photos from that time. She burned them all, stupidly, during a fit of sorrow and rage.</p><p>Her hands start to shake just looking at it, and all at once she can’t seem to breathe.</p><p>“Your luggage is in the guest room if you want to change,” Lena says, walking in behind her from wherever the hell she was before. Andrea doesn’t turn around. She can’t bear it, can’t look at her. Her eyes ache.</p><p>“Why are we here, Lena?” Andrea says. Her voice is brittle and sharp, like a jagged piece of glass one press away from shattering.<br/><br/>“We have to get ready for dinner.”<br/><br/>“No, I mean why are we here? In this stupid city stalking this stupid girl? I don’t understand what we’re doing here.”<br/><br/>A slow-building roar is rising in her ears, slowly overtaking her senses as she struggles not to sob or scream or something in between. She can hear the anger in Lena’s words as she responds.<br/><br/>“I’m here to figure out what my husband is doing. I don’t know why you’re here, but feel free to leave if you want.”</p><p>“Bullshit,” Andrea snarls. “You’re not here for Mike. You’re here for Kara. Maybe the real truth is you and Mike just have the same taste in women.”<br/><br/>Lena’s jaw clenches, works and grinds as she holds back the obvious horrified tears in her eyes. Andrea can’t stop herself. The words fall out like a cascade, the worst of her escaping all at once.<br/><br/>“I mean, think about it. Kara,” a pause, then, “Me. You both want to <em>fuck </em>the same women, that’s what it is.”</p><p>The tears break at that in Lena’s eyes and she feels no satisfaction, only disgust. Her whole life has been constant disgust with herself, with how little she deserves. She never deserved Lena’s love.<br/><br/>Overwhelmed, Lena stomps to the bedroom, trying to slam the door behind her only for Andrea to stop it. She pushes her way in, follows close like a dog nipping at her heels. It’s like all her self-control is gone, she’s just a frothing mess of bitter contempt.<br/><br/>“Aren’t you tired of pretending? I’m so fucking tired of pretending. Just admit it, you’ve wanted to sleep with her from the second you saw her in the gym!”<br/><br/>And much to both of their surprise, Lena shoves her. Hard. Hard enough that she stumbles backwards, nearly toppling over, and without a second of hesitation she shoves her right back. Arms grappling at arms, anger and tears exploding from their eyes, they push and pull and fight until finally with a furious yell Lena shoves her fully down on to the bed.<br/><br/>Andrea tries to push back up but Lena’s stronger. Lena is the one who has done every workout these last weeks, and she’s twice as strong when she’s mad. They wrestle and huff and groan at each other until she finally has her fully pinned, arms by her head held down at the wrist, and Lena’s tears drip and hit her in the face.<br/><br/>“How do you not understand?” She’s screaming, sobbing down at her. “You ruined my life! Don’t you know how much you shaped me? How much I hate myself because of you?!”</p><p>Andrea just lays there in a stunned silence, the truth of her sins finally laid bare before her. All at once the fight drains out of her.<br/><br/>“I hate myself just as much,” she says back, and her tears mix with Lena’s on her face. “Every moment since I left you, you’re all I’ve thought about. I’m so sorry. I’m <em>so </em>sorry.”</p><p>Lena just laughs, sitting back into her straddle and wiping her face with her hands. Andrea doesn’t move, she just lays there beneath her with her arms still by her head. She’s not sure if she’s allowed to touch.</p><p>“Nothing I can ever do will fix what I’ve done,” she continues. “It cost me the love of my life and my best friend. It was the biggest mistake of my life. So, whatever you need with Kara or Mike or anything, I’m here.”<br/><br/>Lena just looks at her with weary, blood-red eyes.</p><p>“That doesn’t fix anything,” she says. Andrea nods.</p><p>“I know. But you jump, I jump.”</p><p>They sit like that together, Lena still straddling her hips, and just stare.</p><p>There’s a knock at the door.<br/><br/>It’s time for dinner.<br/><br/></p><hr/><p><br/>Dinner goes about as well as one could expect.<br/><br/>The worry lines that had etched themselves so clearly around Lena’s face vanish the second she ushers Kara in.<br/><br/>“This is so cool!” Kara is saying, and Lena is nodding along. “I can’t believe we’re neighbors! We can hang out all the time! Only if you want, I mean-”</p><p>“No, no! I want to! Please!”<br/><br/>It’s too much for Andrea to do sober so she starts herself a glass.</p><p>They eat, they talk, they ignore the obvious tension radiating off of Andrea and Lena the entire time. Thankfully Kara handles it gracefully and helps the conversation flow smoothly. <em>She’s good with people</em>, Andrea thinks with bitter acceptance. She’s good with Lena.</p><p>One drink turns into three turns into them sprawled out on the living room floor wrapped in blankets, laughing and talking and buzzing along. The tension has dripped out of her with every sip, and now she’s just left staring with adoration as Lena goes into some odd story about an animal she’d once seen on a safari trip. Whatever the story might be, Andrea is fascinated by the way her mouth forms the words and her hands flex in expression.<br/><br/>“That sounds amazing,” Kara says, and a glance at her shows she bears the same enraptured expression. At least they can agree on something.</p><p>It’s worse now, looking at Kara. She’s so handsome in the most annoying of ways, her jaw line naturally drawing the eye towards her neck, down and down till they sweep so carelessly over her defined arms. There’s a roil in her belly she doesn’t like that erupts at the sight of her. It only intensifies as her eyes wander back up to find Kara staring back, that damned knowing smirk lazily tugging at her lips.<br/><br/>“Hi,” Kara says, voice low and rough. Her stare makes Andrea’s skin itch.</p><p>She rolls her eyes and looks to Lena for help, but Lena is staring back at her just as strangely – eyes clouded, brow creased. She’s so tired of always making her face crease like that, always creating worries and doubts. Without thought Andrea reaches a thumb out to trace over Lena’s eyebrows trying to coax them into relaxing. And it works, she thinks, as Lena’s face goes slack, eyes stutter shut, mouth hang just the tiniest bit open. It’s like her thumb has a mind of its own traveling further down to trace the curves of her eyes, flow over her high cheek bones, then dip low across her lip. She can feel the wine still staining her there, and she wipes it clean before thoughtlessly popping her thumb into her own mouth, sucking it off.<br/><br/>Lena makes the strangest noise, so similar to that breathy sigh she’d made all those weeks ago when Kara first touched her, first approached them in that yoga class. Stranger still is the small noise she hears behind her from Kara herself. She doesn’t dare look at her. She just keeps staring steadily ahead at Lena, who closed her eyes again and has yet to open them.<br/><br/>They sit like that for a long, tense moment, before Lena speaks.<br/><br/>“Kara,” she says. “How does sex work for you?”</p><p>Andrea needs another drink.<br/><br/></p><hr/><p><br/>It took a little careful clarification to figure out exactly what Lena was asking their pretend house guest. She wasn’t asking how Kara has sex in general, but rather how she has sex in her polyamory.</p><p>“So do you just have orgies all the time?” She asks with the utmost drunk sincerity. Kara smiles at her with unadulterated affection.<br/><br/>“I don’t, no. I mean other people probably do but I’m more of a one-at-a-time gal myself,” she pauses to take a sip of her drink and lets her eyes drag lazily towards Andrea. “Or two.”</p><p>“That certainly sounds like a handful,” Lena says, causing all three women to burst into a fit of giggles. It takes them ages to calm down, and Andrea half expects them to move on from the conversation only to be surprised by Kara’s confident statement of,<br/><br/>“Luckily I’m an expert at figuring out people’s kinks so I’m pretty adaptable in bed.”<br/><br/>Lena turns bright red and giggly but Andrea just laughs that snort laugh she always hates to do but can’t control. Kara looks at her affectionately as she rolls her eyes and says, “yeah fucking right.”</p><p>“I’m serious! That’s one of my secret skills! That and I can yodel really well. And mime. But above all else, I’m an excellent people-reader. I can pinpoint exactly what kind of weird kinks somebody has to a T.”<br/><br/>Lena giggles, drunk and giddy.</p><p>“well you can’t pinpoint me.”<br/><br/>“I dunno,” Kara says, and Andrea can hear the slur in her voice. “I think you’d like it a lot if I pinned you down.”<br/><br/>And Lena, in all her glory and Luthor pride, giggles. She fucking <em>giggles</em>. Andrea hasn’t heard that light little lilt in a decade, and it hits her with affection so hard in the chest she might burst. Seeing Lena blushing and giggling and not refuting anything makes her head feel kind of dizzy and she’s not sure what’s happening but it’s amazing. It’s intoxicating.<br/><br/>“I can’t believe this whole time all I had to do to make her shut up is pin her down,” Andrea finds herself saying, laughing along, only for Kara to cut in quickly with,<br/><br/>“Oh no, not you. She doesn’t want <em>you</em> to pin her down.”<br/><br/>Kara was taking a sip when she started that sentence and ends up choking halfway through, falling into a coughing fit she can’t quite stop, and it’s instantaneous how Andrea’s entire happy buzz crashes. Pulls her down into the fiery lonely pit she carries in her soul every day, the pit that lovingly whispers how Lena doesn’t love her anymore, how no one does, how she isn’t worthy of love. How this fun joking moment was just that – a moment, and not one for her. Kara and Lena are their own thing without her. It’s not as fun anymore.<br/><br/>Kara manages to clear her throat in the midst of her downward spiral, eyes watery and smile still firmly in place, and Andrea would love it if she never spoke ever again, but like usual her desires mean jackshit because Kara quickly follows up with,<br/><br/>“Sorry, sorry,” she coughs. “Anyway, I was saying - you guys have a different dynamic. She doesn’t want you pinning her. Lena wants to be the one pinning you down.”<br/><br/>And it's absurd, is the thing. It's totally, absolutely absurd, but it does make her think about earlier in the evening in their terrible fight. Even still, she expects Lena to just giggle away like she's done all evening.<br/><br/>Only she realizes that Lena isn’t giggling anymore. She’s gone quiet, weirdly quiet, and her face is so red Andrea half expects her to get a nose bleed. She’s never seen Lena blush as hard as she is in this moment, staring down at the floor like she wishes it really was lava and she could melt into it, and before Andrea can try to say something Lena is up and off to the kitchen mumbling about needing another drink.</p><p>Andrea just watches her go in dumbfounded awe. Turns to look at Kara, who is smirking at her from behind her cup.<br/><br/>“Like I said,” she says, taking a slow, smug swig, “different dynamics.”<br/><br/></p><hr/><p><br/>Andrea wakes up laying on her side in the bedroom facing Lena, who, based on the arms and hair she can see peeking out, is being spooned from behind by Kara. She’s got one hand holding Kara’s hand tight to her stomach, and the other just barely laced with Andrea’s fingers. That’s the only place they touch.</p><p>It burns to look at them like that, wrapped up and fitting so perfectly together. Andrea gently wiggles her hand free and starts to get up to go to the couch only to pause when Lena suddenly grabs a hold of her wrist.<br/><br/>“Stay,” she whispers in the dark. “Please.”</p><p>Andrea stares for one long, painful moment before slowly settling back into the bed with them. She folds back on her side until her back touches Lena’s front, and she lets her wrap her two arms around her, lets her gently place Kara’s hand across them both. Andrea holds both of her hands tight.</p><p>The next time Andrea wakes is in the morning and it’s only because she can’t fucking breathe. During the night their spoon seems to have evolved into a death hug as she is now firmly secured in Lena’s arms, her face shoved in tight to Lena’s throat which vibrates with every loud snore she lets out.</p><p>She forgot what a loud snorer Lena tends to be.</p><p>It’s a struggle to extract herself from the warm deadly embrace. Lena is not one to give up without a fight, even in her sleep, so it takes a few long minutes of quiet grunting and wiggling for her to pull out enough to breathe fresh hair-free air.</p><p>She takes a gasping breath and looks right into Kara’s eyes, who is just behind Lena’s head staring at her with a way too amused smirk. Her hand is still resting across Lena, just barely grazing Andrea. Her skin feels hot where they touch.<br/><br/>“Thanks for the help,” Andrea whispers angrily, embarrassed. She didn’t realize the other woman was awake.</p><p>“Sorry, it was just too cute watching you struggle.”<br/><br/>She’s got way too much affection in her eyes for Andrea’s liking. She’d like to tell her as much, but her shifting caused a chunk of her hair to tangle in her mouth which only adds to the embarrassment as her arms are still too caught up around Lena to reach it. Instead she ends up blowing stupidly out of the corner of her mouth, trying with vain to spit it all out and blow it from in front of her eyes, and she can feel the bed shaking from Kara’s quiet giggles at her misfortune and it’s all a little too much.</p><p>Finally, after far too long, Kara’s hand lifts from Andrea’s side to brush the hair from her face. She drags a fingernail along her cheek to pull it all free. Her fingers lingering on her face for just a moment. It’s a moment, heavy in a way it shouldn’t be, where all they can do is stare into each other’s eyes. When it becomes too much Andrea lets her eyes flicker down to Lena’s face, expecting to see her snoring and drooling as always, only to see she’s wide awake and staring right back.<br/><br/></p><hr/><p><br/>Life continues on. They spend their days working long-distance or working out with Kara. Their nights at either of their apartments sharing meals and far too loaded looks.</p><p>One day, Lena receives a text.</p><p>“It’s Kara. She wants us to come over for dinner.”<br/><br/>“Okay. Why are you making that face?”</p><p>“She said she wants us to meet her boyfriend.”<br/><br/></p><hr/><p><br/>Obviously, they don’t fucking go.</p><p>It’s the first time since they met her that they say no to Kara, and they can tell by her expression she knows why. Or at least, she knows it’s related to meeting her boyfriend, which is still enough to make their goodbye after the gym especially awkward.</p><p>They opt instead to sit in the office building beside the combo (“I own this entire lot, remember?”) and watch Kara’s windows with binoculars. Thankfully she seems to thrive entirely on sunshine, so her windows are always wide open to the world.</p><p>“She needs to close her blinds at night,” Andrea comments, taking a bite of the sandwich they bought for their stakeout. “Any creep with binoculars could just watch her all the time.”</p><p>Lena doesn’t like her attempt at humor, instead jotting a note down about having maintenance install something on the windows. Andrea rolls her eyes. They watch as Kara flutters around her living room, cleaning and rearranging and with every second the weight in her stomach feels a bit heavier.<br/><br/>And then he arrives.</p><p>In theory, Andrea has known all along what this was about – it’s always been about Mike. About catching him in the act or figuring out how to stop him from hurting Lena, or something. They are all three there now, in this moment, because of him. Yet it still strikes her to see him here like that, sweeping Kara up in his arms to twirl her around. She feels the breath knock out of her.</p><p>She can see the joy in Kara’s face when he swings her, the pure excitement. They seem free and happy together.<br/><br/>“He’s never looked at me like that.”</p><p>It almost scares her hearing Lena speak so suddenly. She can hear the wavering tears in her voice. All she can do is hum a reply.<br/><br/>They watch the two talk, excited and chattering away as they catch up on everything. They keep grasping at each other affectionately, like they don’t want to go another second without the other’s touch. He looks <em>so happy</em> to see her.</p><p>“Are they in love?” Lena asks. “Real love?”</p><p>As if in answer, Andrea’s phone rings. It’s Russell.<br/><br/>“I found where all the money goes,” he says the second she answers.<br/><br/>All the money that’s been vanishing from Mike and Lena’s shared bank account, the money he’s been moving from both of their corporations – Russell found it.<br/><br/>“He’s running it through some places to try and clean it up but for now he’s storing nearly all his assets in something called Inflate-A-Gym LLC?”<br/><br/>It sounds like the stupidest fucking thing Andrea has ever heard of, which is what triggers her memory.<br/><br/>“Kara’s company,” she says at the same time as Lena.<br/><br/>“Why would he do that?” Andrea asks.<br/><br/>“I’m not sure. I need to look into it more but my guess would be he’s doing some real shady things with it.”<br/><br/>“Oh my God,” Lena says quietly to herself, eyes wide with revelation. “She’s the fall guy.”<br/><br/>“What was that?” Russell asks over the phone, but Andrea just hangs up and nearly throws the phone in her disgust. Rage fills her all at once, pours out of every part of her with such magnitude her hands start to shake.</p><p>“He’s laundering the money and setting her up to take the fall,” Andrea grits out. “Oh, fuck no.”</p><p>And before she can stop herself Andrea is up and quick-walking towards the building.<br/><br/>It takes Lena a few precious seconds to realize what she’s doing, and that is more than enough time for her to make it into the building and down the hall.</p><p>“Andrea!” she’s yelling after her, but Andrea is so singularly focused that her yells bleed into the deep ringing in her ears and all she wants to do is kill Mike Matthews with her bare hands.</p><p>“Andrea, stop!”<br/><br/>Lena grabs her wrist and Andrea yanks away, only for Lena to grab at her other as well, holding both in her hands and pulling Andrea to face her. She looks furious, and flush, and before Andrea can think better of it, she says,<br/><br/>“What are you gonna do? <em>Restrain me</em>?”</p><p>Instantly Lena lets her go and steps back, face bright and wide-eyed, and Andrea takes advantage of the moment to sprint away. All she can think is<em> thank you, Kara </em>and <em>he’s a dead man.<br/><br/></em>She reaches Kara’s door and bangs on it so hard she rattles the hinges and then immediately she hits the ground as Lena tackles her with a screaming yell. She can hear movement in the apartment as the two wrestle away. They hear Mike’s voice say <em>don’t answer it, baby,</em> followed immediately by Kara saying <em>I don’t see anyone. hello? Who’s out there? Lena </em>tugs at Andrea’s arms, tries to pull her down the hall.</p><p>“Andrea, please. <em>Please.”</em> And there’s so much genuine desperation that finally, ever-so-reluctantly, Andrea listens. She allows herself to be pulled into their apartment, and not a second too soon as Kara’s door finally slams open and they hear, just as their door closes, “I think it was your neighbors.”<br/><br/></p><hr/><p><br/>“I’m going to kill him. I’m going to fucking kill him,” Andrea is saying, has been saying since they got there. Lena just paces before her, hands pressed to her head as she considers. There’s nothing for Andrea to consider. She’s going to kill him.</p><p>“Kara was so excited about that stupid idea of hers, how he was the only person who believed in it,” Andrea says, absolutely fuming. “And really he’s just a fucking bastard.”<br/><br/>“We have to tell her. We can’t let him do this,” Lena says, and for a second Andrea thinks she’ll let her march back over there and kick his ass, but they are caught off guard by a sudden knock at their door.<br/><br/>A flash of terror hits them both. <em>Mike is here.</em></p><p>Thankfully, when they peek through the peephole it’s just Kara standing tall and resolute.<br/><br/>“Are you alone?” Andrea asks, earning a slap on the arm from Lena. They can hear the aggravated sigh Kara lets out as she says yes.</p><p>There’s something off about her as she steps into their home. Kara’s always been an open book with them, always open and honest and joyful. She’s none of those things now.</p><p>“You know, when you turned down my dinner, I assumed it was because you were busy, not because you wanted to ding-dong-ditch me.”<br/><br/>She’s hurt. She’s genuinely hurt, Andrea can tell. Her stomach flips again in the most unpleasant of ways.</p><p>“We’re sorry,” Lena says, honest.<br/><br/>“I really wanted you guys to meet him,” Kara continues, words soft and sad. “I thought- well, I guess it doesn’t matter what I thought. You know, I’ve been trying to figure it out. What you guys want from me. I mean you, you barely even like me,” she gestures to Andrea. “Yet here I am all the time. I figured, you know, you were driving for a threesome, but you guys never made a move and you just kept hanging out with me so for a minute there I really thought-“ her voice breaks and she takes a moment to settle herself before saying, “well, it doesn’t matter.”</p><p>She looks so heartbroken and small standing in their pretend home’s foyer. It takes her a moment, but she pulls herself up tall, resolute. Sets her jaw tight before she speaks.<br/><br/>“The whole threesome thing… I’m not interested. I’ve been that before,” she says. “A bandaid on a failing relationship. People think bringing in someone new will magically fix all their problems, but most of the time it just makes the end come faster.”<br/><br/>The speech is smooth like a well-prepared presentation, and she looks strong even in her sorrow. Andrea looks to Lena for guidance and sees her there with tears in her eyes. She expects her to refute it, to offer a better alternative for their terrible behavior. To say that if a threesome doesn’t work, she and Kara could try a twosome.<br/><br/>“Mike is my husband,” Lena says instead.<br/><br/>“Oh,” Kara says back dumbly. “I didn’t prepare a speech for that.”<br/><br/></p><hr/><p><br/>It takes a half hour of quick overlapping explanations to catch her up to speed, but for her part Kara just sits there attentively listening on their living room couch.<br/><br/>“So you’re not really married,” she says, “you were just spying on me to figure out if I was a terrible person or not.”<br/><br/>“Which you aren’t!” Lena gushes quickly.<br/><br/>“And now Mike is trying to ruin both of our lives and run away with millions?”</p><p>“Yep. That’s about it,” Lena says.<br/><br/>They both stare at Kara, who just stares back with a stunned gaze.<br/><br/>“So the question is what happens now?” Andrea asks.<br/><br/>Kara stares back, jaw set.<br/><br/>“Now we destroy the bastard.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Next chapter will be from Kara's POV, the final one will be Lena's. Wouldn't it be wild if I wrote a threesome sex scene? That'd sure be something.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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